Imaam Fakhru-Deen ar-Razi on those who seek intercession of the dead

“And they worship besides Allâh things that hurt them not, nor profit them, and they say: "These are our intercessors with Allâh." Say: "Do you inform Allâh of that which He knows not in the heavens and on the earth?" Glorified and Exalted be He above all that which they associate as partners with Him!”[10:18]

Imaam Razi said in his tafseer

“They(the polytheists) made these idols in the likeness of their prophets and elders. and they claimed that when they busy themselves with worship of these statues ,the elders will become their intercessors with Allah .Similar to them in this time are the actions of many people who busy themselves with glorification of graves of the elders(/great men) with the belief that when they glorify their graves(of the righteous) they will be their intercessors with Allah"[Tafseerul Kabeer]



{ وَيَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ مَا لاَ يَضُرُّهُمْ وَلاَ يَنفَعُهُمْ وَيَقُولُونَ هَـٰؤُلاۤءِ شُفَعَاؤُنَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ قُلْ أَتُنَبِّئُونَ ٱللَّهَ بِمَا لاَ يَعْلَمُ فِي ٱلسَّمَاوَاتِ وَلاَ فِي ٱلأَرْضِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ }

ورابعها: أنهم وضعوا هذه الأصنام والأوثان على صور أنبيائهم وأكابرهم، وزعموا أنهم متى اشتغلوا بعبادة هذه التماثيل، فإن أولئك الأكابر تكون شفعاء لهم عند الله تعالى، ونظيره في هذا الزمان اشتغال كثير من الخلق بتعظيم قبور الأكابر، على اعتقاد أنهم إذا عظموا قبورهم فإنهم يكونون شفعاء لهم عند الله.

Fakhr al-Razi al-Ash’ari also said: ‘The majority of the greatest intellectuals said: the Dua is the greatest of all stations of worship’ (Sharh Asma Allah) Hence, if Dua is from the greatest of stations of worship, could it be directed to one other than Allah? And one guilty of it, could he be called anything but a Mushrik?

Furthermore, Fakhr al-Razi in his Tafseer reports al-Khattabi commenting on the Hadeeth: ‘The Dua is in fact worship’, meaning: that it (dua) is the greatest of acts of worship’!

Again, The Shafi'i-Ash'arite theologian, Fakhru-Deen ar-Razi states in his Tafseer; and this is the greatets proof coming from him PAY ATTENTION

"Those who said: 'We only worship these idols, which are sculptures of angels, so that they intercede for us. Hence, Allah falsified their claim saying: 'No intercession will be of benefit with Him, except for one He permits'. Hence, there is no benefit in you worshiping other than Allah, for Allah does not permit intercession for one who worships other than Him. You, by asking for intercession, have lost the right of intercession."

He also says: "Be certain, that the Kuffar said: 'We do not worship these idols because we believe they are gods that bring about benefit or harm. We only worship them... because these great beings become intercessors for us with Allah. Hence, Allah responded to them saying: 'Have they taken others besides Allah as intercessors? Say: Even if they do not posses a thing, nor do they understand?'


So lets analyze

he beleived that merely asking for shafa'a for whoever seeks it has by default lost the right that Allah originally gave him for shafa'a. That only makes sense considering your nullifying your chance of shafa'a since being a recipient of shafa'a ENTAILS that Allah waas pleased with your "following of the sunah" ad since the sunnah does not established seeking tawassul thereby trying to gain "shafa'a" then it follows you also fall outside the fold of thoe who deserve shafa'a

secondly, he viewed asking (du'a0 to be worship, which is the view of practically the majority of all muslims without doubt and supported heavily upon the tongue of tour nabi salallahu alaihi wa sallam where he said "dua is worship"


Oh he is not alone in this. I will bring the rest in another post bi ithnillah

asalamu alaikum